Exclusive: Don Godwin corners the market at U.S. 380, Dallas North Tollway intersection

It's been more than 35 years since longtime real estate investor Don Godwin started buying up real estate along the Dallas North Tollway, and he's just landed his best deal yet.

Godwin, who began investing in Dallas-Fort Worth's northern reaches long before Jerry Jones, has landed his second corner at the Dallas North Tollway and U.S. 380 in Frisco, giving him a stronghold on the east side of the high-profile intersection that's already caught the eye of a number of developers.

"That's the going-home corner," Godwin, chairman and CEO Dallas-based law firm Godwin Lewis and lead trial lawyer for Halliburton, told the Dallas Business Journal in an exclusive interview. "It's much like 121 and the toll road ... it's a very strategic piece of land."

In the early 1990s, Godwin started building his stake at the intersection. He initially bought 183 acres at the northeast corner of the Dallas North Tollway and U.S. 380, before adding another 187 acres to the hard corner to total about 270 acres.

But the continued northward sprawl centered along the Dallas North Tollway was enticing to the real estate investor who owns about 7,000 acres in Collin and Grayson counties. Godwin wanted more.

Along with the northeast corner, Godwin closed Thursday on the 120-acre tract at the southeast corner of the intersection in an all-cash transaction from Alberta Frisco Texas, LLC. Rex Glendenning of REX Real Estate in Frisco represented Godwin in the deal.

"This was a very large acquisition," said Godwin, who said he bought it individually without any partners. "I've been buying corner for a long time, but I've never had the opportunity to own two of the four most high-profile development corners in the Metroplex."

"I'm particularly enamored with those two corners," he added.

In a separate deal, Godwin sold a 525-acre tract of land he'd cobbled together with three different land buys over the years along the Dallas North Tollway, on the opposite side of the massive Light Farms master-planned community under construction in Celina.

The land was bought by The Cambridge Companies Inc., which is a residential real estate development firm headed up by Chuck Wilson.

Glendenning represented Godwin in selling the property. David Davidson Sr. represented The Cambridge Companies Inc., which will likely develop a master-planned residential community on the land. Terms of the deals were undisclosed.

"From a development perspective, we need more rooftops and we want growth," Glendenning told me. "With Toyota coming in and FedEx, there's going to be more of a demand for homes on the toll road. That's where the market is headed."